Human society began with small isolated groups typically of
20-30 individuals, that self-organised by developing individual and group
skills and responsibilities to ensure survival. As societies became more
complex so too did the ways of organizing and managing them. A few took upon
themselves or were nominated by the many to take decisions that ensure the
prosperity of all. Today the governments of China and India each manage the
affairs of over a billion people, and most countries count their populations in
the millions.
How are such large populations managed as a single political
entity? How do governments succeed in inspiring its populations to have a
shared identity and collective aspirations?
India and China reinvented themselves after centuries of
deflection of their traditional systems by colonial adventurism. To put it
simplistically, India does it by recalling its ancient civilizational
achievements, China by gathering around Confucianism. Europe developed a collective identity as a privileged
economic power.
World War Two brought in its wake forces that transformed
the cultural and political landscape of the entire world. Colonization withdrew
as a political presence, but expanded its cultural presence. A new colonial
force emerged from across the Atlantic. One of its first actions was the 1948 Marshall
Plan, proposed by US Secretary of State George Marshall. It provided economic assistance to rebuild 17
Western European economies shattered by World War II. Its goal was to stabilize
democratic institutions, prevent the spread of communism, and revive European
industrialization to boost global trade.
More significantly, it sought to spread American values and
culture. The British colonists had spread its language, culture, laws and
administrative systems across the world through physical occupation. The
Americans realized the power of cultural expansion mainly through the
entertainment industry. Professor of Geography and Public Policy, Allen J.
Scott, points out how the interests of Hollywood and the aims of Washington
have consistently coincided. As an example, the Marshall Plan linked levels of
aid directly to recipients' willingness to accept imports of US motion pictures.
Today US led entertainment and culture has spread across the globe, not just in
the form of cinema but also music, youth culture, casual clothing, video games,
social media, idiomatic language and journalism to name only a few. Hong Kong
cinema and K-Pop throws the cultural ball back across the net, and Bollywood
aspires to.
At a more subtle level, UNESCO was established in 1946 with
the intent to prevent further wars. Its main author Julian Huxley, an English
evolutionary biologist and eugenicist, believed the more genetically endowed should
weed out the genetically weaker populations through birth control creating a
universal environment of harmony creating a new world of order. Although he was
widely travelled, it was to be, by default, the education and culture of the
superior gene pool- Europeans, which we see manifested in the universal systems
of education, museum culture and scientific research methods across the world.
However, the creation of a docile, compliant populace
continues to elude the powers that be. Intellectual challenges came from non-Europeans
such as Frantz Fanon author of Black Skin, White Masks, and a growing number of
thinkers from China to Jamaica. Traditional cultures, literatures, and
religious beliefs are being revisited.
Authoritarian countries traditionally use force to suppress
dissent, but today the same tactics are seen in Britain, Europe and USA. The
same devices such as film, literature, and history writing are being used to
challenge controlled narratives. "The Voice of Hind Rajab" has won
awards in the citadels of western cinema.
Women inventors erased from history books are being reinstated. The
achievements of Ibn Khaldun and Al Khwarizmi are being acknowledged.
The struggle to regulate and contain the vast populace of
the world by a vested elite continues. Tsarist Russia offered cheap vodka to
keep its population compliant. Today free internet keeps people physically
isolated where once they would have gathered in cafés and street corners. Discrediting opponents no longer works as
multiple authors have a phone keyboard to present alternate views, and the very
devices that were thought to keep people socially distant, have become rallying
mechanisms for announcing street protests.
The revolution brewing is not the chaotic destructive mob of
the French revolution, but the push back of a thoughtful, informed generation.
Durriya Kazi
February 22,
2026
Karachi
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